This research contributed to the development of some frameworks for analysing and understanding the real costs and benefits of participation for all those involved, to address one of the key gaps in current knowledge on the subject.
In recent years there has been a huge rise in participatory activity across the UK, but this rise in activity has not been matched by the development of the analytical frameworks to enable us to fully understand the phenomenon or to continue to improve practice.
This research project was published in November 2005, in order to contribute to opening up the debate on the costs and benefits of participation, and start to provide some initial frameworks for the future development of both theory and practice.
You can download this publication here.